RFK Cuisine · Seafood · San Francisco
Best Seafood Restaurants in San Francisco 2026
Seafood · San Francisco · 6 rooms ranked · Updated June 2026
Compiled by the Restaurants for Kings editorial team · Published June 20, 2026 · Updated June 20, 2026
The line outside 1517 Polk Street starts before the doors open, and it does not move quickly: Swan Oyster Depot seats eighteen people at a marble counter, takes no reservations and no cards, and has run that way since 1912. That is the truth about seafood in San Francisco — the best of it is plain, cold and close to the boat. Dungeness crab landed in the bay, Tomales Bay oysters shucked at the Ferry Building, petrale sole the old grills have cooked since the Gold Rush. Six rooms, ranked on the fish, the room and what the bill buys — from a cash-only counter to a Bay Bridge dining room with a whole roasted fish.
1.Swan Oyster Depot
The 18-stool marble counter that defines San Francisco seafood; go before it opens, cash in hand, for the single best raw bar in the city.
Swan Oyster Depot has occupied the same narrow storefront at 1517 Polk Street since 1912, and the Sancimino brothers have run it for four generations without changing the formula: eighteen wooden stools, a long Italian-marble counter, no kitchen to speak of and no reservations. You eat what the case holds that morning — oysters on the half shell, whole cracked Dungeness crab in season, smoked salmon, and the combination seafood salad that is the order to beat. It is cash only, lunch only, and the line out front is part of the deal. Nothing in the city is more San Francisco than half a dozen Kumamotos and a Sierra Nevada on a stool at Swan. Arrive before the 8 a.m. open or after 1 p.m.
No reservations — queue in person; the combination salad, a dozen oysters and cracked crab.
2.Hog Island Oyster Co.
Farm-to-counter oysters shucked beside the bay; walk in at off-hours for Sweetwaters and a grilled cheese with the water in view.
Hog Island runs its own oyster farm on Tomales Bay an hour north, and the Ferry Building bar is where the catch lands — sweet, briny Sweetwaters and Atlantics opened to order at a counter that looks across the water to the East Bay hills. The menu is short and sure of itself: oysters by the dozen, a baked-oyster "Hog Island Sweetwater," steamed Manila clams, a clam chowder, and a grilled cheese on Acme bread that has its own following. The room carries a Michelin Guide listing for good reason. It takes no reservations and fills fast at lunch, so come at the edges of the day or settle in for the wait. The half-shell here is as fresh as oysters get in a city.
Walk-in only; the Sweetwater oysters, the baked Hog Islands and the grilled cheese.
3.Sam's Grill & Seafood Restaurant
The 1867 downtown grill with curtained booths and tuxedoed waiters; book a booth for an old-San-Francisco lunch over sand dabs in drawn butter.
Sam's Grill at 374 Bush Street is the fifth-oldest restaurant in the country, and it cooks like it: charcoal-grilled petrale sole, a proper Hangtown fry of fried oysters and bacon, and the house dish, sand dabs à la Sam — the delicate local flatfish floured, pan-fried, boned tableside and finished with drawn butter. Waiters in white jackets work the curtained private booths, a Financial District ritual that has outlasted a century and a half of the city around it. It is a weekday room, open through the early evening for the downtown crowd, and a long lunch in a curtained booth is the way to use it. The cooking is honest and the room is irreplaceable.
Reserve on OpenTable or by phone; the sand dabs à la Sam and a charcoal-grilled petrale sole.
4.Waterbar
The Embarcadero dining room with a raw bar and a Bay Bridge wall of glass; book a window seat for a whole roasted fish at sunset.
Waterbar has sat on the Embarcadero at 399 since 2008, directly under the Bay Bridge, and it is the seafood room to book when the occasion wants a tablecloth and a view. Floor-to-ceiling windows frame the bridge lights, the raw bar runs a dollar-oyster happy hour worth timing your arrival around, and the kitchen sends out whole roasted fish, cioppino and a serious shellfish tower. It is the most expensive room on this list and the most polished — a place for a celebration or a client dinner rather than a quick dozen. Reserve a window table two to three weeks ahead for a weekend, and aim for golden hour when the bridge starts to light.
Reserve on OpenTable; the whole roasted fish, the shellfish tower and the $1 oyster hour.
5.La Mar Cocina Peruana
Gastón Acurio's pier-side cebicheria for the city's best raw-fish cooking; book the deck for cebiche mixto and a pisco sour on the water.
La Mar, the San Francisco outpost of Peruvian chef Gastón Acurio, sits on Pier 1.5 off the Embarcadero with an open deck over the bay, and it makes the case that the best raw fish in the city is not always on the half shell. The cebiche mixto, cured bright in leche de tigre with sweet potato and choclo corn, is the dish to order; the tiraditos, causas and anticuchos round out a menu that runs through the Japanese, Chinese and Andean threads of Peruvian cooking. Pair it with a pisco sour and the bridge view. It is a lively, sizeable room rather than an intimate one — book the deck for a sunny afternoon, a week ahead for weekends.
Reserve on OpenTable; the cebiche mixto, a tiradito and a pisco sour on the deck.
6.Woodhouse Fish Co.
The neighborhood fish shack for a Maine lobster roll without the ceremony; walk in on a weeknight for crab rolls and a cold beer.
Woodhouse Fish Co. runs a New England fish-shack menu out of two rooms — the Castro flagship and a second at 1914 Fillmore Street — and it is the easy, unfussy answer when you want shellfish without a reservation or a tasting-menu price. The Maine lobster roll comes cold with lemon aioli or hot with butter, the Dungeness crab roll is the local move, and there are oysters, steamers, a respectable clam chowder and lobster on Tuesdays. Paper napkins, a chalkboard, a quick line at the door on weekends. It will not change your life, but it is the seafood meal you can have any night of the week, and it does the simple things right.
Walk-in, or order ahead online; the Maine lobster roll, the Dungeness crab roll and a chowder.
How San Francisco eats seafood
San Francisco's seafood calendar runs on Dungeness crab. The season opens in mid-November and runs into spring, and the weeks around the opening are when the local catch is freshest, cheapest and most worth chasing — crab Louie, cracked crab, and cioppino, the Italian-American shellfish stew the city's North Beach fishermen invented. Oysters are the year-round constant, led by Hog Island's Tomales Bay farm and the Pacific and Kumamoto varieties on every raw bar. The old-grill tradition — petrale sole, sand dabs, rex sole, sautéed plainly in butter — is the other through-line, kept alive at Sam's Grill and the rooms that learned from it.
Geography sorts the rooms. The Embarcadero and Ferry Building hold the water-view bars — Hog Island, Waterbar and La Mar all look across the bay — while Polk Gulch hides Swan and the Financial District keeps Sam's. Tipping follows the U.S. norm of 18 to 20 percent, and a service charge is increasingly added for larger parties, so check the bill. For the broader field, compare the world's coast in the best seafood restaurants worldwide guide, read the counter-and-pintxos case in San Sebastián seafood, and map the rest of the city through the San Francisco dining guide.
Where not to book
Skip these for serious seafood
The Fisherman's Wharf sidewalk crab stands. The steaming crab pots and walk-up cocktails on Jefferson Street trade on the view and the postcard, not the cooking; the Dungeness is often pre-cooked and the markup is pure location. Eat crab at Swan Oyster Depot or Sam's Grill instead.
Swan or Hog Island if you need a reservation or a quiet table. Both are counters with no bookings and a real wait, and neither suits a group that wants to sit together at a set time. For a planned dinner with a view, book Waterbar on the Embarcadero or La Mar on the pier.
Frequently asked
What is the best seafood restaurant in San Francisco?
Swan Oyster Depot at 1517 Polk Street is the city's defining seafood counter, an eighteen-stool marble bar the Sancimino family has run since 1912, serving Dungeness crab, oysters on the half shell and the combination salad to a line that forms before it opens. For oysters with a view, Hog Island Oyster Co. in the Ferry Building shucks its own Tomales Bay catch; for an old-San-Francisco dining room, Sam's Grill on Bush Street has cooked sand dabs since 1867. Swan is the answer if you only get one meal.
How much does a seafood dinner cost in San Francisco?
It splits sharply by room. A counter lunch at Swan Oyster Depot runs $40 to $70 a head with crab and oysters, cash only; Hog Island and Woodhouse land around $45 to $75. The sit-down rooms cost more: Sam's Grill and La Mar run $60 to $100 before wine, and Waterbar climbs to $90 to $150 with a whole roasted fish and a bottle. Dungeness crab season, mid-November through spring, is when the local catch is cheapest and best.
Where can you eat Dungeness crab in San Francisco?
Swan Oyster Depot serves whole cracked Dungeness and a crab Louie at its counter through the winter season, and Sam's Grill and Woodhouse Fish Co. both run it whole or in a roll. Dungeness is at its peak from the November opening through early spring, when boats land it fresh into the bay. Skip the Fisherman's Wharf sidewalk crab pots for the tourist markup and eat it at one of the rooms above instead.
Do you need a reservation for seafood in San Francisco?
It depends on the room. Swan Oyster Depot and Hog Island take none — you wait in line — and Woodhouse is walk-in friendly. Waterbar, Sam's Grill and La Mar all take bookings and want them for a weekend dinner: reserve Waterbar two to three weeks ahead for a window table over the Bay Bridge. For Swan, arrive before it opens at 8 a.m. or after 1 p.m. to dodge the worst of the queue.
What seafood should you order in San Francisco?
Order local: Dungeness crab in winter, Pacific oysters year-round, and the petrale sole and sand dabs that the city's old grills have cooked for over a century. At Swan, get the combination salad and a dozen oysters; at Hog Island, the Sweetwaters and the grilled cheese; at Sam's, the sand dabs à la Sam in drawn butter; at La Mar, the cebiche mixto. Cioppino, the city's Italian-American shellfish stew, is the dish to seek in crab season.
More seafood, by city
More from RFK
Browse the full San Francisco dining guide, compare the global field in the best seafood restaurants worldwide, take a counter stool for solo dining at Swan, plan a Bay Bridge table for a first date at Waterbar, or open the full RFK cuisine index.
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